NIA's trip to Dhaka proves fruitless

Father of the accused smells vengeance by his former tenant and Hizb man

A team from the National Investigating Agency (NIA) went to Bangladesh to question some students from Kishtwar in Kashmir Valley studying there in a medical college to ferret out details about their arrested college mate, said top government sources.

The NIA team, probing the High Court blast, has been quizzing some of the Kashmiri students studying in Jalalabad Ragib Rabeya Medical College and Hospital at Sylhet near Dhaka

Sources said the NIA team quietly left for Dhaka recently and has been quizzing some of the Kashmiri students studying in Jalalabad Ragib Rabeya Medical College and Hospital at Sylhet, near Dhaka.

The team has so far questioned two students, including a girl, both hailing from Kishtwar, about the conduct of Wasim Akram, who is at present in NIA custody for 14 days.

Both students have been let off after the NIA team, which was provided assistance by the Bangladesh authorities, found nothing to back their investigation, the sources said.

As the NIA probe so far indicates that it was looking for a youth identified as Junaid Akram in connection with the September 7 blast, the agency was apparently unaware that his kidnapping report had been registered at a Kishtwar police station where the blame had been put on an alleged Hizbul Mujahideen conduit Azhar Ali.

In a related development, Wasim's arrest has been decried by his family members, who said he was being made a scapegoat as he had no role to play in the blasts.

Wasim was allegedly linked to Junaid, who, NIA claimed, have received training in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) a charge rebutted by his father, Reyaz Malik who said that it was nothing but a bunch of lies being spread about his sons.

Narrating the incident, he said his son had gone missing last year in August after appearing for his matriculation exams and said that his date of birth was May 5, 1995.

He also said that it was surprising that while they had lodged an FIR about Wasim going missing at the Kishtwar police station, his son was being labelled as a terrorist.

However, he said that it was an act of vengeance being orchestrated by Hizb conduit Azhar Ali, whose family had been their tenant in Kishtwar.